As your creative ideas for beautiful product offerings blossom with the onset of spring, your marketing plan may need a boost to do them justice. Have you thought about amping up your presence on Pinterest? If you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t have the time or resources to create a strong presence on this virtual bulletin board, I have a few stats that might just change your mind.

According to Sprout Insights, Pinterest’s share of social-media referrals soared from .68 percent to a whopping 26 percent in just one year, generating over 400 percent more revenue per click than Twitter and 27 percent more than Facebook. Do you want to increase the likelihood of a purchase? Well, then you should know that shoppers referred by Pinterest are 10 percent more likely to follow through with a purchase than visitors from other social networking sites. Pure and simple: Pinterest can be the star of your social-media sales and marketing efforts.

It’s important to remember, however, that the members of your social-media audience don’t want to feel as if they’re being pitched. They are not there to be sold to; they are there to connect, learn, and relax. So make sure to offer creativity and value in your pins: humor, statistics, interesting facts, and beauty. Pinterest is about the senses; if your visuals aren’t appealing to the eye and your words don’t stimulate the imagination, your followers will move on.

Below, I’ve created a quick resource and how-to guide for Pinterest success. Begin by creating your business account. If you have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account. You’ll find an analytics tool and other great business features to support your campaign. When you are ready to begin pinning, download the Pinterest button from the goodies page (https://about.pinterest.com/en/goodies) and place it on your website.

Begin by creating a list of ideas and a collection of fabulous pins--your Pinterest plan. Here are a few ideas, tips, and resources:

Share Infographics and Checklists.What are some interesting facts about your industry, consumer habits, or product? If you offer gift baskets, for instance, gather statistics on the most popular occasions for gifting, and other interesting tidbits about your industry. Did you know that gift baskets have been a traditional form of gift giving since the dawn of the twentieth century? Throughout history, baskets filled with fruit, nuts, wild game, flowers and other material tokens have been presented as a sign of affection or a gesture of goodwill. They were traded for goods and even used in religious ceremonies. Fun facts!

Checklists are popular as well. You might create a handy list of occasions for gifting, including those times that people may not have considered.

It’s easy to create these infographics and checklists in PowerPoint, but there are free templates and infographic creators available on-line as well.

Evoke Emotions and Make It Shareable. Make sure your images are pleasing to the eye and evoke emotion. Use enticing words and phrases that engage the senses. If you are pinning food, use words that make people hungry, such as succulent or mouth-watering. If you’re pinning beauty products for women, use words that make them feel sexy, stylish, and beautiful.

Teach With Tutorials.DIY ideas are hugely popular. Tutorials rank high for click-throughs and traffic generation. These too can be in the form of a checklist, infographic, or even video. Teach your audience how to create stunning gift boxes or how to make candles, soap, or bath bubbles.

Engage With Videos.When you think Pinterest you’re most likely to think pictures, but videos are one of the highest forms of engagement on the site. Pin your videos from YouTube, and get plenty of mileage out of them.

Use a Call to Action.Everyone loves a bargain. Create a cool background image and overlay a coupon code or special offer. A call to action increases engagement by a whopping 80 percent! Be sure to include text like: Click Here, Repin This, or Comment Below. Also include a link that makes it easy to buy the product.

Grab Them With Teaser Text.Create interest and curiosity with teasers like “five tips to a DIY spa day” or “how to spark the romance with aromatherapy.” Use attractive background images with eye-catching colors.

Boost Your SEO.Pinterest helps improve search-engine optimization, so make sure to get your account ranked for keywords. Pinterest has a root domain that ranks high with Google. Use keywords in the “About” section, on pins, in board titles, captions, and links (type in a URL in the image description area). Also use hashtags. If you add prices to your caption with the $ sign and a numeric value, it indexes you into Pinterest’s popular Gifts category.

Schedule Your Pins.You may be accustomed to scheduling your social updates. Not to worry; you can do the same on Pinterest with Pingraphy (http://pinnablebusiness.com/how-to-schedule-pins-on-pinterest/). Schedule a good number of your pins during the high-traffic times on Pinterest, which are early in the morning and late at night, with Saturday morning ranking top of the list.

Make sure to keep track of your most successful pins; this will give you a great basis for your plan moving forward. Happy pinning!

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